A compendium Ealing horror, directed by four of the studio's talents, remains influential in the genre, even if it's more creepy than horrific to modern eyes. Despite the cut-glass delivery and country house setting, it was ahead of its time, combining the Victorian affection for ghost stories with a sharp psychological edge that would later be developed by Hitchcock and the shockers that followed Psycho in 1960.

It begins with an architect, Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns), spending the weekend at a remote mansion, consumed by a feeling that he has been there before – and that the visit had ended in violence. Another guest, a psychiatrist (Frederick Valk), claims there is a logical reason for this, inviting the others to share their paranormal experiences, which they do via tales of ghosts and premonitions. The climactic story of a ventriloquist (Michael Redgrave) and his sinister dummy stands out. The film then generates a haunting eeriness that makes the unsettling, back-to-the-beginning twist ending all the more effective.